Science learning via participation in online citizen science

Karen Louise Masters; Eun Young Oh; Joe Cox; Brooke Simmons; Chris Lintott; Gary Graham; Anita Greenhill; Kate Holmes

Science learning via participation in online citizen science

Karen Louise Masters, Eun Young Oh, Joe Cox, Brooke Simmons, Chris Lintott, Gary Graham, Anita Greenhill, Kate Holmes

Institute of Cosmology & Gravitation

University of Oxford

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Abstract

We investigate the development of scientific content knowledge of volunteers participating in online citizen science projects in the Zooniverse (www.zooniverse.org), including the astronomy projects Galaxy Zoo (www.galaxyzoo.org) and Planet Hunters (www.planethunters.org). We use econometric methods to test how measures of project participation relate to success in a science quiz, controlling for factors known to correlate with scientific knowledge. Citizen scientists believe they are learning about both the content and processes of science through their participation. Won't don't directly test the latter, but we find evidence to support the former - that more actively engaged participants perform better in a project-specific science knowledge quiz, even after controlling for their general science knowledge. We interpret this as evidence of learning of science content inspired by participation in online citizen science.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1-33
Number of pages	34
Journal	Journal of Science Communication
Volume	15
Issue number	3
Publication status	Published - 20 Apr 2016

Keywords

Citizen Science
Public engagement with science and technology
Public understanding of science and technology
RCUK
EPSRC
EP/K039784/1

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Science learning via participation in online citizen scienceFinal published version, 4.69 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

http://jcom.sissa.it/archive/15/03/JCOM_1503_2016_A07Licence: Unspecified

Citizen Science Volunteers Driven by Desire to Learn
Joe Cox
1/08/17
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title = "Science learning via participation in online citizen science",

abstract = "We investigate the development of scientific content knowledge of volunteers participating in online citizen science projects in the Zooniverse (www.zooniverse.org), including the astronomy projects Galaxy Zoo (www.galaxyzoo.org) and Planet Hunters (www.planethunters.org). We use econometric methods to test how measures of project participation relate to success in a science quiz, controlling for factors known to correlate with scientific knowledge. Citizen scientists believe they are learning about both the content and processes of science through their participation. Won't don't directly test the latter, but we find evidence to support the former - that more actively engaged participants perform better in a project-specific science knowledge quiz, even after controlling for their general science knowledge. We interpret this as evidence of learning of science content inspired by participation in online citizen science.",

keywords = "Citizen Science, Public engagement with science and technology, Public understanding of science and technology, RCUK, EPSRC, EP/K039784/1",

author = "Masters, {Karen Louise} and Oh, {Eun Young} and Joe Cox and Brooke Simmons and Chris Lintott and Gary Graham and Anita Greenhill and Kate Holmes",

note = "This is the author{\textquoteright}s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Science Communication, available online: http://jcom.sissa.it/archive",

year = "2016",

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day = "20",

language = "English",

volume = "15",

pages = "1--33",

journal = "Journal of Science Communication",

issn = "1824-2049",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Science learning via participation in online citizen science

AU - Masters, Karen Louise

AU - Oh, Eun Young

AU - Cox, Joe

AU - Simmons, Brooke

AU - Lintott, Chris

AU - Graham, Gary

AU - Greenhill, Anita

AU - Holmes, Kate

N1 - This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Science Communication, available online: http://jcom.sissa.it/archive

PY - 2016/4/20

Y1 - 2016/4/20

N2 - We investigate the development of scientific content knowledge of volunteers participating in online citizen science projects in the Zooniverse (www.zooniverse.org), including the astronomy projects Galaxy Zoo (www.galaxyzoo.org) and Planet Hunters (www.planethunters.org). We use econometric methods to test how measures of project participation relate to success in a science quiz, controlling for factors known to correlate with scientific knowledge. Citizen scientists believe they are learning about both the content and processes of science through their participation. Won't don't directly test the latter, but we find evidence to support the former - that more actively engaged participants perform better in a project-specific science knowledge quiz, even after controlling for their general science knowledge. We interpret this as evidence of learning of science content inspired by participation in online citizen science.

AB - We investigate the development of scientific content knowledge of volunteers participating in online citizen science projects in the Zooniverse (www.zooniverse.org), including the astronomy projects Galaxy Zoo (www.galaxyzoo.org) and Planet Hunters (www.planethunters.org). We use econometric methods to test how measures of project participation relate to success in a science quiz, controlling for factors known to correlate with scientific knowledge. Citizen scientists believe they are learning about both the content and processes of science through their participation. Won't don't directly test the latter, but we find evidence to support the former - that more actively engaged participants perform better in a project-specific science knowledge quiz, even after controlling for their general science knowledge. We interpret this as evidence of learning of science content inspired by participation in online citizen science.

KW - Citizen Science

KW - Public engagement with science and technology

KW - Public understanding of science and technology

KW - RCUK

KW - EPSRC

KW - EP/K039784/1

M3 - Article

SN - 1824-2049

VL - 15

SP - 1

EP - 33

JO - Journal of Science Communication

JF - Journal of Science Communication

IS - 3

ER -

Science learning via participation in online citizen science

Abstract

Keywords

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Citizen Science Volunteers Driven by Desire to Learn

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